Apple case

products as being Australian made—multinational
ownership notwithstanding. Dick Smith marketed his
own Dick Smith-branded food products as not just
Australian made but also made by Australian owned
companies, thereby keeping employment and profits
in Australia—threatening the brand image of
rival multinational brands.
We are starting to see the impact of the ‘buy
Australian’ theme on the marketing plans
of multinational companies.

End-of-book: Case studies Q 675

There is no doubt that the launch of Dick Smith
Foods is another successful adventure for Dick Smith
and it has created some disturbance for the multinational
giants. However, in an interview with B&T Weekly,
16 March 2001, Dick Smith himself confessed, ‘I still
tend to agree with the marketing people who say that,
in the long term, the big multinationals will win’.16
We have yet to see the long-term impact of the ‘buy
Australian’ movement in general, and Dick Smith Foods
in particular, in changing consumer inertia.

QUESTIONS
1 | What are the astute marketing opportunities that Dick
Smith identified in establishing Dick Smith Foods?
2 | Identify the major target markets that are most susceptible to the patriotic appeal of Dick Smith Foods.
3 | What are consumers really buying into when buying
an ‘Australian’ brand? Or, do they really care about
the Australian-ness of a brand? What do you think?
4 | Some critics labelled Dick Smith’s new adventure as ‘nothing more than a money-making scheme’. What do you think?
5 | Dick Smith Foods placed an ad in national newspapers on
21 and 22 April 2001 headlined, ‘Is Australian ownership of business simply jingoism?’ The copy of the ad reads:
‘Newspaper journalist, Dennis Shanahan, has been running
a campaign against Dick Smith Foods, claiming that it is
“feeding paranoia” and “jingoism” to promote the
advantages of Australian owned...